Page 39 of Covert Temptation

Then she heard it—a low thumping sound coming from the back.

There was a back door leading from the living room. She hadn’t bothered to explore it, but she guessed it led to the back yard.

Moving to the door, she stood there for a long beat, her lungs pulling in air that felt too hot and prickly. Then she gripped the handle and turned it.

It was unlocked.

As she poked her head out, she heard more of those small thumping noises. The wind caught her hair and tossed it over her eyes. She scraped it away and turned her head right and left, searching the snowy yard for Dante.

The man was crouched, something lumpy and heavy in his hands. He was looking straight at her.

“What are you doing?” Her voice sounded wobbly from the panic of finding herself so alone, and she cleared her throat to even it out.

“Got your boots on?”

“No.”

“Get them on.”

She ducked back into the house and hurried to find her boots. The expensive leather wasn’t really made for a tromp through the snow, but it was all she had.

She grabbed her black coat too, tying the belt tight around her middle as she stepped out into the brisk early winter wonderland.

The back of the house boasted a small deck with a short run of steps leading to the ground. She followed Dante’s footprints in the snow to a small circle he’d created with stones.

“What are you doing?”

“Building a fire ring.”

She met his stare, dark and filled with some shadow she couldn’t make out. “Okay, why?”

“So we can have a fire.”

She didn’t know whether to be enchanted or roll her eyes.

He went back to positioning stones that he’d found somewhere on the property, fashioning them into a circle. A few feet away, a few logs lay, ready for a match to light them.

The wind caught the cloth of her coat and made it flap around her. She stuffed her hands in the pockets to keep the chill from her fingers. “This is the second time you’ve surprised me, Dante.”

Pausing, he met her gaze again. “The second? What’s the first?”

“When we…slept together.” She heard the blush in her voice and wished she were one of those modern women who didn’t care who knew her secrets.

The heat creeping up her cheeks somehow appeared in the tips of Dante’s ears. She didn’t think it was the wind chapping his skin, either.

His broad shoulders flexed as he set another fat stone in place. “It was no big deal.”

She refused to be hurt by his cavalier tone. “You have to admit it was a little unorthodox. You did something taboo.”

His grunt came muffled on the heavy air weighed down by the weather system. “I don’t see it that way.”

She inched closer, not drawn by the cold circle of the fire that hadn’t been yet started, but pulled by Dante’s warmth. “I saw the movie with the bodyguard. No way was he supposed to sleep with her.”

The crease that pinched his dark brows amused her. She shouldn’t enjoy getting under his skin so much, but it seemed to have become her new hobby.

He didn’t say a word, just continued to add on to the ring until the ends were closed, forming a perfect circle. When he pushed out of his crouched position, the fresh scent of his body wash blew across her face. She inhaled it, her face warming at the memory of burying her nose against his velvety skin while he sank deep, deep inside her.

She clenched her thighs together, but it didn’t stop the throb there.

---